Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch simulations of the magnetocaloric effect in continuous ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transitions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch micromagnetic simulations can effectively model the magnetocaloric effect near the Curie transition, aiding in material understanding and design.

Contribution

It introduces a novel micromagnetic simulation approach using the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation for magnetocaloric materials near phase transitions.

Findings

Reliable isothermal entropy change curves obtained for different microstructures.

Results agree with previous experimental and theoretical data.

Method proves robust for complex microstructure analysis.

Abstract

The usefulness of modeling magnetocaloric materials expands from the understanding of their behavior to the prediction of new materials, playing a fundamental role in the optimization of their performance. In contrast with other areas of magnetic materials research, micromagnetic simulations of magnetocaloric materials are scarce due to the difficulty of modeling the material in the vicinity of the transition. To solve this limitation, we propose the use of micromagnetic simulations based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation to study the magnetocaloric effect of a ferromagnetic material around its Curie transition. Following our proposed methodology, we obtain reliable isothermal entropy change curves for both monocrystalline and polycrystalline configurations, where we consider different anisotropic contributions. The robustness of the method was evaluated, yielding results that agreed with previous experimental and theoretical observations. Our study shows that micromagnetic simulations are a powerful tool for analyzing magnetocaloric materials with complex microstructures.